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Monday, 14 April 2014

Back On The Track

I hate watching
hockey! Well, let me clarify that: I hate sitting on the sideline when I should
be out on the pitch playing. The Investec League Play-offs have just finished
and having to miss out for the second year running was just painful. These are
the weekends that everyone wants to play in and it’s just gutting not to be
involved. Having learnt from experience I’ve now taken to staying more in the
background when it comes to my team; lets just say it’s better for the health
of my heart by not living every tackle, pass and goal.

I did have lots of
lovely support though wherever I went. Many hockey supporters who were avidly
following my blog wished me well in my recovery and believe me all the support
and encouragement really helps.

The last week of training has gone well.
Obviously I’m pushing things along as quickly as possible, and after surgery or
any injury pain is inevitable on the road back to recovery; but what is the
difference between pain and pain?
When I’ve had any pain, particularly in my back (which thankfully hasn’t been
that often), I get so many annoying thoughts running through my mind. Why’s it
painful? What have I done? Should I carry on training? Is it good or bad pain?

I tried to explain to someone the other day
that because I have no visual concept really of what the surgeon has done, I
keep imagining things popping out of places they shouldn’t! Again, completely
irrational thoughts take over my mind to the point where I end up in tears
whilst trying to convince myself that I’ve not done anything different that
could’ve caused it. Normally it’ll last that day, the next morning I’ll wake up
and it all feels fine again and I’ll wonder what all the fuss was about. It’s
completely ridiculous; I know it is. Even when I’m in this state of mind I try
to tell myself it’ll be fine tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem to help.

On the whole I’ve enjoyed a good week’s
training led by Ben Rosenblatt, our strength and conditioning coach who has also been
working all hours to not only write my programmes, but to support me through
many of my sessions. The blood flow restriction training has finally come to an
end and I really feel like my legs are strong. My trunk exercises are now
including some flexion, rotation and side bends. Progression can definitely be
seen which keeps morale high. I also reached a huge milestone this week: I ran
for the first time! That definitely makes me feel even closer to my target.

Three running sessions and five footwork
sessions down: many, many more to come. It’s time to ramp this up!

The short movie below introduces Ben and
also shows some of my exercises from the last two weeks including the dreaded
blood flow restriction session.

Definitely progressing well from what my untrained eye can see, so well done you. I'm not convinced I could manage some of those routines as well as you are when I was 20+years younger & fitter, so keep going! The Hockey Family is supporting you :o).